Sunday, June 24, 2012

Another week of Miracles

Dearest Family!!!!!!!!!!!! This week has been another week of Miracles for us here in East Tainan. Working with Sister Fitzpatrick has been such a blessing--she is an amazing missionary that will do so much good wherever she goes. I love her soooo much!!!! However, our time together is coming to a swift end----I am TRAINING NEXT MOVECALL!!!!! Which means she leaves me this Friday (right before her second baptism :( :( ). But she is soo cute about it and really excited for me to train. She is the best. So I am excited to be able to welcome a new missionary into the field--Heavenly Father is really blessing us as she will have a baptism her first Saturday. We are excited! Heavenly Father is so good to us and has blessed us with many new investigators this week! Some from our own efforts but also a really awesome member referral! Our ward correlator set up a little get-together at his house and invited us over to meet a few of his relatives. It was awesome and I feel that giving us member referrals in that way--having us meet and chat with them first, is so much better!! He had us share a little about ourselves and why we were on missions. It was really awesome and helped them know what our purpose is. I know this is how missionary work should be--driven by the members. It was so awesome and we are so excited about our new investigator. As for less actives, we are trying to do more finding through them. One miracle story from this week was that after being fanged (stood up) on Saturday morning, we decided to stick to the back up plan and visit a family. The father is particularly opposed to our church (especially Elders) because a friend lived near some foreign men (he says they were Elders, but who knows) who apparently didn't make the best of choices. This particular Saturday he was home, and he let us visit with his wife and youngest daughter (who still needs to be baptized). We were excited to be able to get to know the daughter better, but then the biggest miracle happened!!! As we were getting ready to wrap up our lesson, the wife mentioned her husband had been to graduate school in Japan and spoke fluent Japanese. I asked if she could ask him to let me practice my Japanese on him. He immediately came downstairs and was so animated and happy! We started chattering in Japanese and although I have forgotten soo much, it was a great way to break the ice and start a positive guanxi (relationship) going. The whole atmosphere was warm and welcoming!! It was soo awesome!!!! He started asking us about our families and saying how impressed he was by us sister missionaries. Before we left, he participated in the closing prayer and even accompanied us, with his wife, out to our bikes to see us off! It was amazing---we had to pick our jaws off the ground as we rode away. Such a HUGE blessing! I am so grateful that the Lord allowed us to help him have a better opinion of this amazing Church. Also, one of the less actives we are rescuing received a calling this week. We had ten less actives at church this week!! A large part is a dear family that is starting to come back. So awesome!
One of our friend's who goes running with us, bought us McDonals for breakfast after our run! It was super fun...I had been craving pancakes :P. It was funny (I've included a pic). This week my studies have been especially special for me. Sister Fitzpatrick and I have such wonderful times sharing what we have learned together. It has been special times. I felt God's love for me and we have been praying to meet families. As we prayed with faith, God gave us blessings. Last week a member brought a cute little family to English--this Sunday she also brought them to church!! Sunday a lady called and asked if she could meet us at 6pm. We actually met with her and her two sisters! And the will be attending the baptism on Saturday---and are bringing their children! It is amazing! We are being so blessed. I know that God hears the prayers of the righteous. He is giving us prepared souls and we prepare ourselves for them. God really is Good. He loves us---we are His precious children---as are those we teach. I love being able to serve my God. I LOVE YOU FAMILY!!!! --Sister Brooke Smith